DESCRIPTION:
NOFX has been together for over a quarter of a century and they've been pretty busy over the last few years. 2009 saw the release of the Coaster album (it was titled Frisbee if you got it on Vinyl) and the Cokie The Clown EP, a live set was recorded for Myspace, and they played on the Warped Tour. In spring 2010 they toured again, then in August they put out The Longest EP, a compilation of a lot of their B-sides, EP's and rare tracks and now NOFX are back on the road on a tour that will continue into February of 2011. So when I read that they were putting out a split seven inch with the band The Spits I was a bit surprised -- where did they find the time to write and record two new songs?

After tracking down a copy of this hard to find record, giving it a quick listen or two (I say quick because the whole thing is less than seven minutes long) and realizing that only one of their songs is actually new, I understand how they pulled this off.

I'll start out with the NOFX songs. Both tracks are old school punk rock (there are no reggae influences here) and sound like they were recorded in one take in a small studio or possibly even a basement.

"Hold It Back" is a short, fast track that has more in common with their early recordings than it does with the Coaster material. This one was already released on the Myspace Transmissions vol. 11 recording that was put out last year.

"Teenage Existentialist" is the second song and it is really good (the best song on the record). It sounds more like what NOFX sounds like these days and is the only song on here that clocks in over two minutes long.

Now for The Spits side of the vinyl. I'd only heard a couple of tracks from this band before getting this record and the best I can say about them is that they are not horrible. They sound like The Ramones (or possibly The Queers) with a whole bunch of added distortion and that is exactly what their first song "Wait" sounds like. Their second track "Get Our Kicks" follows the same formula but this time the singer sounds like Joey Ramone on a bunch of quaaludes. Neither song is what I would call good, but if you are a fan of the band, you will probably like them.

Even though this is not a bad record, the NOFX songs are good; I wouldn't recommend it to a casual fan. But if you are a big fan of NOFX or The Spits and don't already have this, I suggest you head over to E-Bay and put a bid on this out of print seven inch before the price goes up.